The Propaganda Wagon
This week’s monstrous Kony 12 video (which at the time of this writing has 38 million views on YouTube and 12 million on Vimeo) has rocked social media and the concept of non-profits. I’m not here to present a commentary on the video or its cause. I think there’s something perhaps more important going on, here.
For going on two days, the video and its organization have been in the top 10 most tweeted concepts worldwide on Twitter. Facebook groups are all the rage and its unpopular to have any sort of dissenting voice in the conflict.
This engine appears to be the most powerful movement of groupthink ever assembled. Here we have a very well constructed video that pulls on all the right emotional heartstrings, has a grassroots movement ready to unleash, and makes celebrities who know nothing of global politics become its spokespeople.
What concerns me about this is that these elements work. Imagine that this was a completely faulty cause, but it was so well constructed that it also caught fire. This is the dawn of a new age of propaganda, where given the right conditions, the masses can protest and move mountains of politicians, while actually being hypnotized into thinking they are doing what is right.
